1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machine for the automated packaging of armed sutures or; in effect, surgical needles having sutures attached thereto and, more particularly, pertains to a suture package unloading arrangement and package unloading method employed in an automated machine for the high-speed individualized packaging of single or individual surgical needles each having an attached suture into a tray and detachable cover providing a suture package utilized for the packaging of the individual or single needles and attached sutures. Additionally, the automated packaging machine incorporates operative mechanism adapted to wind the sutures into a peripheral channel of the tray and facilitating the attachment of the cover to the tray which contains the single needle and attached wound suture, and which cover concurrently constitutes a product-identifying label as a component of the tray. The cover being shaped such that removal of the cover is not necessary to enable a user to gain access to the contents of the tray; in essence, the armed suture.
The automated packaging machine also provides for a rotary turret or dial-like turntable for the high-speed loading thereof with empty trays; the sequential loading of successive forwardly indexed trays each with a needle and attached suture; the indexed advance of the needle and suture-filled tray to suture-winding stations of the machine; the conveyance of the trays each containing the needle and attached wound suture to a cover-applying station of the machine to provide the completed suture packages, and the further advance of the suture packages for subsequent automated removal of the completed suture packages from the machine. The automated packaging machine is resultingly adapted to provide for the continuous and repetitive production of suture packages in a single high-speed production cycle without necessitating any manual manipulation thereof.
More specifically, in the production of suture packages as described herein, the packaging machine pursuant to the present invention provides for a workstation which includes operative robotic pivot arm structure for transferring completed suture packages from tool nests mounted on a rotary dial to compartmented trays in a continues sequence, whereby the package-filled trays may be stacked and manually removed so as to be further transported for additional processing and/or storage, and replaced by empty compartmented trays in an automated sequence.
The present invention is also specifically directed to the provision of a novel method for the automated unloading from the machine of completed suture packages containing the packaging individual surgical needles and attached sutures, and transferring the suture packages into compartmented trays in a continously implemented sequential operation.
Currently, in the medical, surgical and health-related technology, the high-speed and efficient packaging of either single or multiple sutures which are each suitably attached to surgical needles, such as by being swaged or similarly fastened thereto, and in which such combined sets of needles and sutures are generally referred to as armed sutures, is imparted an increasing degree of importance in view of the rising demand of users for such combined surgical needles and attached sutures, and various diverse types of inexpensively manufactured suture packages for the containment of needles and attached sutures have been developed and are presently widely employed.
In specific instances, suture packages may be covered tray-shaped containers designed to receive and fixedly retain therein one or more needles and therewith attached sutures, in which the suture packages, upon opening of the covers, must enable the uncomplicated and simple withdrawal of a respective individual needle and its attached suture in a smooth unobstructed manner. In essence, when the needle which is to be removed from the suture package is engaged by a surgeon or health professional, for example, by being gripped through the intermediary of a forceps and then pulled out of the suture tray, it is essential that the needle easily disengage from its restraint in the package while the suture which is attached to the needle should also be readily able to slip out of the tray in the absence of any binding or snagging, and in the instance of the tray housing a plurality of armed sutures also without becoming entangled with other sutures still remaining in the suture tray or package. Thus, pursuant to a specific needle and suture package construction which, for example, may comprise an injection-molded plastic tray, the needles are generally engaged by clamping structure located in the tray so as to be "parked" or retained in predetermined position or array in a central region of the tray. The sutures extending from the needles to which they are attached are then conducted under tension and wound into a peripheral channel formed within the suture tray so as to extend along the peripheral interior within length of the channel. This positioning of the needles, and particularly that of the sutures within the peripheral channel of the tray is intended to eliminate tight bends or curves normally imposed on the sutures so as to facilitate their easy withdrawal from the suture package.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Until relatively recently, the introduction of needles with attached sutures into suture packages or molded plastic trays was being implemented in a substantially manual manner. In that instance, the needles were manually placed into the tray so as to be clampingly engaged by means of suitable needle-gripping structure, and thereafter the attached sutures wound or positioned within the confines of the tray. Subsequently, a suitable cover was superimposed upon and fastened to the filled tray, and the resultant armed suture package conveyed to a suitable arrangement for possible sterilizing or further over wrapping.
The foregoing essentially manual and relatively basic process for winding the sutures into the tray, and especially the locating thereof into the peripheral channel of the tray during manipulation of the tray, was quite time-consuming, and in conjunction with the manual application of the cover into the tray in a basically individual or piece-by-piece mode, represented a serious hindrance to a large volume or mass produced manufacturing output, and adversely affected the economics in attempting to provide such large quantities of suture packages containing either single or multiple surgical needles and attached sutures.
As an improvement over the foregoing, there was then developed a generally semi-automated winder machine for packaging surgical needles and attached sutures in a tray-like suture package, and wherein at least some of the previously manually implemented packaging steps were to some extent automated in order to be able to increase the output of needle and suture-containing packages while simultaneously reducing the number of manual procedures in effectuating the packaging of those particular items.
To that effect, the semi-automated winder machine, although necessitating the manual orientation of the trays for implementing the filling thereof with needles and attached sutures, included a winding station which to a considerable degree automated the winding process for the sutures so as to place the latter into a peripheral channel extending about the circumference of the tray. Also provided was a further therewith operatively associated device which enabled covers to be manually placed on the needle and suture-filled trays to be fastened thereto by means of a pressing die forming latchingly engaging interconnections between each of the covers and the trays, while concurrently producing from a portion of the cover a product-identifying label which remains permanently attached to the tray upon subsequent detachment of the cover. Although providing a considerable advance over the state-of-the-art in the packaging of needles and sutures, the semi-automated winder machine nevertheless necessitated the implementation of a considerable number of manual and labor-intensive handling steps in effectuating the filling of the trays with surgical needles and attached sutures, attaching the cover and, generally, producing complete suture packages.
As a further technological advance over the foregoing semi-automated needle and suture package-forming concept, there was then developed a substantially fully automated packaging machine which is adapted, in a highly efficient and extremely rapid mode, to continually fill successive trays of the type described hereinabove with pluralities of surgical needles and attached sutures, and subsequently causing the sutures to be wound into the confines of the tray, such as into a peripheral channel extending about the tray. Thereafter, the packaging machine was designed to implement the automated positioning and fastening of covers to the needle and suture-filled trays to produce completed suture packages of the type described hereinabove, which were then adapted to be transported to a suitable locale for selective further processing, such as sterilizing, and/or over wrapping, as is required by this technology.
In particular, the automated packaging machine was designed to provide the packages with each housing a plurality of needles and attached sutures. For example, the packaging machine for accomplishing the foregoing, which is commonly assigned to the assignee of the present application, is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,487,212; 5,473,584; 5,469,689; 5,473,810; 5,511,670; 5,452,636; 5,438,746; 5,500,991; 5,477,609; 5,485,668; and 5,487,216.
The flat, tray-shaped suture package produced by the packaging machine set forth in the above-mentioned patents provides for the storage therein of multiple surgical needles and attached sutures, while concurrently recognizing the need to facilitate the smooth and unobstructed withdrawal of individual needles and attached sutures from the suture package. For instance, such a suture package is disclosed in applicants' U.S. Pat. No. 5,230,424, which is commonly assigned to the assignee of the present application; and wherein the suture package is referred to as an RSO package (Reduced Size Organizer).
In the specific design of the flat tray-shaped plastic container having a peripheral channel as disclosed in the above-mentioned patent, the suture package is basically constituted of a rectangular round-cornered and flat-bottomed injection-molded plastic tray having a flat central surface area including a raised needle clamping structure formed thereon for engaging and "parking" a plurality of needles in a predetermined spaced array. Sutures each have one end thereof attached to each of the respective needles so as to form so-called "armed sutures". The sutures extend from each of the needles into a channel extending about the perimeter or periphery of the suture tray and are conducted into the channel so as to be essentially wound within the circumferential confines of the suture tray. The plurality of sutures which are positioned within the suture tray channel are protected against inadvertent outward displacement therefrom through the presence of a multiplicity of contiguously positioned resilient fingers which are integrally molded with the suture tray, and which project outwardly above the confines of the channel along a major portion of the length of the channel and, collectively, form a so-called "zipper structure" in which the inherently resilient nature of the fingers facilitates their temporary raising up to enable the introduction of the sutures into the suture tray channel by means of a suitable suture winding apparatus.
Although the rotary dial or turntable apparatus of the packaging machine pursuant to the foregoing U.S. patents provides for the packaging of armed sutures; in effect, needles with attached sutures, in a rapid and fully automated manner, such as by supplying the tray-shaped packages; thereafter parking the plurality of armed sutures in the packages, applying covers and removing the completed suture packages from the machine in a sequential station-to-station procedure, the machine was designed to primarily produce suture packages each containing a plurality of armed sutures.